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Often in science, researchers fear their results will not be statistically significant. People are afraid of 'negative' answers. I've always found this rather bizarre, because an answer is an answer, be it yes or no. Especially in science, a negative answer is just as important as an affirmative one – it's not the same as if the question hadn't been investigated in the first place.

Anyway, to stop myself before I ramble any further (before I am tempted to write an essay on great answers born from non-significant results)... I was actually glad to find that the results from my research in Payamino over the past year did not yield any statistically significant differences. Analyses of my field work data did not reveal any significant differences in mammal diversity between primary and secondary rainforest samples. I shall post about the results and conclusions at greater length some time, but for now I will just say what the results of this relatively small-scale stu…

PhD student studying the ecological genetics of Caribbean seagrass at Manchester Metropolitan University. Following graduating with a first class BSc(Hons) in Zoology from the University of Manchester, I worked as a research technician for over two years. I am broadly interested in tropical biology, ecology, biogeography, and palaeobiology.

About the blog

This blog contains snippets from my year living in the Ecuadorian Amazona, including camera-trapping mammals, climbing trees, and counting critters in bromeliads; as well as notes on evolution, conservation, and any other biological topic that sparks my interest. I mostly aim to make these topics accessible to general audiences, so the non-science-enthusiast can find them as interesting as I do!